Black Velvet
by selenehekate
Summary: Oneshot. His eyes were like black velvet. They haunted her every memory, forced to her mind a time when she'd admired him, looked up to him, defended him... Now he was a murderer.


His eyes were like black velvet.

They haunted her every memory, forced her mind to a time when she'd admired him, looked up to him, defended him... The dark pools of knowledge and strength had inspired her to work harder. She'd wanted his approval. She'd wanted his friendship.

She was hurt deeply by his betrayal. She'd always viewed him as a pillar of strength within the Order; he held the group together and fought hard for the side of light... or so she'd thought. She'd always defended him and looked up to him, but no more. She was horrified that she'd _ever_ thought Severus Snape could be a good man. No, he was nothing more than a murderer.

As she stood in the Room of Requirement, surrounded by the other DA members and the Order associates congregating, she couldn't help but wonder what he was doing at the moment. Did he know Harry was back? Did he know about the Horcruxes? Did he know she'd been tortured?

But all of that was pushed from her mind when Ron tapped her on the shoulder. "I have an idea," he muttered, pulling her from the room. "Come on. Chamber of Secrets."

"Chamber of- What? Ron, what are you _babbling_ about-"

"The Basilisk fang," Ron said, taking both of her shoulders in his hands. "They can destroy the Horcrux! If we can get into the Chamber-"

"We can get the fangs," she muttered, her eyes shinning. But then she frowned. "Ron... we don't speak Parseltongue."

He shrugged. "I'll figure it out."

"And what if we're caught? Harry's got the cloak, you know. What if one of the Death Eaters finds us, what if _Snape_ finds us-" Snape, with his black velvet eyes, so haunting, so bewitchingly false...

But Ron just gave a small grin. "Better move quickly, then."

As she followed after him down the hall, she was wary, keeping watch, peering around the corners, looking for _him_. She was afraid of him; she hoped desperately that he stayed away. And yet at the same time, she wished to find him. She wanted to see him, to ask why he'd betrayed Dumbledore and the Order. How could he do this? How could someone so seemingly good, so _safe,_ be so... evil? Even in the Chamber itself, she kept watch, her eyes narrowed at the shadows. Was he nearby? Was he watching?

As Voldemort's voice pulsated through the school twenty minutes later, her throat tightened. She exchanged nervous glances with Ron, a basilisk fang in her hand. "Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded."

_Bastard,_ she thought, as she plunged the fang into the Horcrux. _Snape and Voldemort both. How _dare_ they try and coerce us to give up Harry. How dare they try and make murderers of us all_.

"Looks like we're going to have to fight," Ron noted, a grim expression on his face.

"Time to brave the oncoming storm," she said simply, his black velvet eyes floating before her face. _Bring it on,_ she thought. _Traitor. Bring it on._

Even as she was kissing Ron half an hour later, his eyes still swam before her, taunting her. _This could be your last kiss_, they seemed to say. _You could die. This could be the end for you two_. Part of her wasn't sure _why_ she was kissing Ron. She cared about him, there was no doubt about that, but did she love him? Should she be kissing him when the battle was so near? Part of her _needed_ to kiss Ron, though. She wanted to defy Snape, as though to say "yeah, you may have murdered people, and there may be a war going on, but I'm _still_ going to live my life!"

She didn't understand why it was _his_ eyes that she continuously saw. Surely Voldemort should be the unrelenting presence. Surely he was much more fearsome. And yet the thought that she'd trusted Snape, that she'd believed in him, and he was a liar tormented her. How could she have been so wrong? Why had she ever trusted him?

The bloodshed of the night, watching her friends and former classmates battle for survival, only worsened her unease. As the FiendFyre took Crabbe, and an explosion burned out Fred's shinning light, all she could see were his black velvet eyes.

_Did he want this to happen_? she thought, her hands clenched into fists. _Murder, terror, blood everywhere... Was this what that bastard wanted_?

As Ron thrashed about, teeming with anger at the loss of his brother, she tried to hold him back, to bring reason to him. "We have to kill the snake, Ron! If we do that, we can win! But we can't just run after the Death Eaters!"

_It's all your fault,_ she blamed the black velvet eyes. _If you hadn't murdered Dumbledore, none of this would be happening. The school would be strong, and Fred would still be alive!_

The three of them pushed through the battle, hurrying towards the Shrieking Shack. The DA was fighting in full glory, Dean stunning one Death Eater, Parvati hitting another. Children, barely seventeen, fighting for their lives, fighting to live another day, to save the world. Children should never go through that. He should have protected them.

But no, he stood with his black velvet eyes in the Shrieking Shack with his prized master. Like a coward.

The dementors attacked as they neared the shack. Death was imminent; her Patronus was too weak. And then the DA arrived and saved them once more, fighting off the horde so they could live to fight for a few minutes more. _Glad Harry squeezed in that lesson,_ she thought as she and the others set off once more in the direction of the shack and Snape's final moments.

His eyes were like black velvet in life, but they were like dark despair in death. As he wheezed his last breath, his eyes frozen forever on Harry's gaze, a small sense of satisfaction blossomed in her heart. _One Death Eater down_, she thought. _Voldemort to go._

But Snape wasn't evil, she learned later. He was a good man. Misguided, but good. He was in love, and doing everything he could to honor that love. He sacrificed himself for everyone. And she would always feel a sense of debt towards him. She felt guilty, but glad that the man she'd known throughout her childhood was still there somewhere.

_It's bittersweet,_ she thought to herself. _On the one hand, he's finally free. But he didn't deserve to die. I wish he'd had a chance at a real life, because his ended much too soon. Like the end of a rainbow. It's bittersweet._

She would forever miss his colorful words, his dark eyes, and his knowledge of everything she could ever want to know. She would forever feel his gaze on her back, his brooding eyes watching over her, the castle, and the entire wizarding world. She would forever miss his snark and sarcasm, and wish that she'd known him better.

His death was like the end of a rainbow. A black velvet rainbow.

* * *

Because the only type of rainbow Snape could ever be is a black one.

...Although that would be a scary sight, seeing a strip of black light suspended in the sky...

Anyway, this was written for the FanFiction Idol Competition! The prompts were DA, bloodshed, storm, end of a rainbow, and black velvet. I hope you all like it!

Thank you so much for any reviews! I really appreciate everyone's opinion and feedback!

-Selene


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